Some Ladders to Climb Down

Apparently, there are anti-Brexit billboards like this one popping up all over the country by a campaign group called Stop the Silence and paid for by people like me who remain unconvinced that leaving the EU is such a good idea.

I stumped up my twenty quid through the campaign’s website because it seemed the least I could do to express my doubts about our mass migration out of Europe.

But the great thing about it is that I can make my contribution to the cause anonymously, or at least I could until I wrote this post, because the way that the Leavers like to play the man instead of the ball is quite scary. From Cameron to Blair, John Major to Michael Heseltine, high court judges to the House of Lords – anyone who even appears to doubt the received democratic wisdom is trashed mercilessly.

I had my doubts about the referendum before it was held on the grounds that the issues involved were far too complex for a simple yes or no answer. By that, I don’t mean that anyone in favour of Brexit is stupid – the Remainers were equally blind to the consequences of that fateful decision because what staying or leaving actually means was and is still shrouded in confusion.

Another who has had to contend with the Leavers vitriol is former MP and Spectator columnist Matthew Parris and he wrote about it recently. I’ve lifted some quotes below but you can read the full article here.

Why do they, the winners, keep lashing out whenever one of the losers doubts or questions their plans? You can almost see the veins standing out on their necks as they rail against the people who didn’t win the referendum.

I think most of these voters, MPs and journalists are public-spirited patriots who are secretly, usually unconsciously, terrified that they’ve done the wrong thing. They do of course care. They urged their country forward into a leap in the dark and now worry desperately lest it turn out badly. They’re displaying the classic psychopathology of deep anxiety, seeing enemies and conspiracies everywhere, hitting out angrily at all dissent, and channelling their own fear into aggression against those who are in fact expressing it. Freudians call this projection.

So what’s needed is not columns like this (which they will wrongly interpret as questioning their sanity) but therapy, in the form of ladders to climb down. Maybe I need it too, for in truth I’m not sure I’m right, and can imagine Brexit proving a (to me surprising) success. So let me make the first conciliatory move. I, a Remainer, accept that Brexit may not prove a mistake. Ball’s in your court, Leavers: can you accept that it may?

Like Parris, I think it possible that Brexit might work out for the best and really hope that it does. But then again it might not, especially if we don’t make our doubts known.

Nobody’s prefect. If you find any spelling mistakes or other errors in this post, please let me know by highlighting the text and pressing Ctrl+Enter.

If you liked that you'll love these

Good on you for supporting this resistance. Long before the referendum I was saying to friends and acquaintances that we could never actually leave Europe entirely and that the question on the ballot paper was dumb. We needed a hundred more questions. It was never going to be just about “In” or “Out”. That was far too simplistic and the British people were duped by the ignorance of those at the top. Was it deliberate or accidental? And another thing, what about Russia? To what extent was Russia involved in the weeks before the Brexit vote?

Perhaps the 28% who didn’t vote either way were content with the status quo. Their non-participation has received very little comment.

As I’m sure you’re aware, the same thing is going on in my country (U.S.A.) and judging from an interview I saw with Marine Le Pen this past weekend France is going to be faced soon with the same turmoil. One wonders where it will all end.

I saw billboards by this same organization being driven around Parliament Square by a truck when I visited Westminster Palace on Monday. As YP said, good for you for supporting them. I’m not sure what effect they hope to have at this point — I guess perhaps influencing the terms of leaving — but I’m glad there’s an organized voice of sanity out there. I think Farage, Banks et al aren’t so much in doubt of what will happen when we leave as they are rabid that their “win” not be taken from them. They’ll protect it at all costs, and that includes ferocious verbal opposition to Heseltine and others.